Criminogenic situation in the Lithuanian community in the USA in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Abstract

As the immigrant community in the United States began to form in the second half of the 19th century, the features of its criminogenic situation became apparent by the beginning of the 20th century. They were largely determined by lifestyle, primarily the fact that Lithuanians, like emigrants from other Eastern European nations, found themselves at the bottom of the US social pyramid and the absolute majority of emigrants were people engaged in hard physical labor. They felt like they were living on the margins and had to fend for themselves. Secondly, mass drinking among emigrants is often mentioned, which is often characteristic not only of men, but also of women. The third factor was a completely different way of life than in Lithuania, often mentioned in the context of erasing moral norms brought from the homeland. It is not surprising that Lithuanian émigré newspapers have recorded cases of murder, injuries, theft, robbery, fraud, and other crimes since the beginning of their existence. This is also true of the years of the United States’ participation in World War I (1917–1918). We find mentions in the press of several murders, thefts, fraud cases, and records of victims of disasters and accidents. At the same time, the influence of war on criminal acts is also noticeable, for example, thefts may have been justified by the war-induced shortage of stolen goods; attempts to circumvent prohibition became the beginning of numerous crimes. It should also be noted that as a result of the war, expatriates, like other US residents, were faced with a new legal reality as the US government struggled with sabotage and, in particular, with the population’s resistance to US participation in the war. The involvement of a significant number of Lithuanians in the aforementioned resistance led to their clashes with US law enforcement and also contributed to an ideological split in the leftist current of the diaspora, which may be the subject of another study.